Invasion: UFO is a 90 minute movie compiling the episodes Identified, Computer Affair, Reflections In The Water, Confetti-Check A-Ok, The Man Who Came Back and ESP. The film was produced in 1980 and is not a pilot for a movie. New video effects were made from Dolphin Productions with additional music overlayed onto existing music (the opening by Francis Monkman - "The Dawn Of An Era"). Some fans prefer this over the original, whilst others think it is vastly inferior. Plus, the episodes used in the compilation film were not released in video format for years to come later because the episodes on the compilation had exclusive video rights to the films.
Already during the 1960s, ITC had produced compilation movies of several of their shows such as The Saint, The Baron, and Man In A Suitcase, editing two-parter episodes of these shows and releasing them overseas as films. This was nothing new at the time and bar a few Italian compilations of Space: 1999 and 5 dubbed UFOs released in cinemas in the early 1970s, the Gerry Anderson shows had yet to be subjected to this. In 1977, a small little movie came out called Star Wars and science fiction was big again as world studios scrabbled to put together science-fiction movies as quickly and as cheaply as possible - including ITC. The first of these Gerry Anderson compilation films came in the form of Destination Moonbase Alpha (compiling Space: 1999's two-parter The Bringers Of Wonder). ITC also noticed by 1978 that there had been significant resistance to re-syndication of the puppet shows, which would make a good opportunity (as compilation films) to return syndication of these classic shows.
By this time, the UK home video revolution had begun with the launch of JVC's HR-3300EK - the first UK VHS (Video Home System) format videotape cassette recorder. Although Sony's superior Betamax video format had appeared earlier, it was VHS that would dominate the home video market and one of the earliest companies to release pre-recorded VHS tapes was Precision Video (the video distribution arm of ITC's parent company - Associated Communications Corporation). Precision released its first range of tapes in September 1980 offered a selection of 16 titles from ITC's catalogue which included films such as Capricorn One (1977), Saturn 3 (1980) and aforementioned Destination Moonbase Alpha (1978) - priced £29.99 (around £130 today). In 1979, another Space: 1999 feature was assembled from the episodes Breakaway and War Games - Alien Attack. Robert Mandell, Vice President of Creative Affairs of ITC New York attempted to repackaged the back catalogue of ITC to assemble features for 2-hour slots. All the colour Gerry Anderson shows were under consideration (with the possibility of Fireball XL5 being colourised being dropped for being too expensive), bar The Protectors.
Also under consideration for the compilation movies included The Prisoner, The Champions and My Partner The Ghost (the US syndication title for Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased). The plan was for new 35mm prints to be struck and edited into a feature film with new video effects to give the films the "motion capture look". The Gerry Anderson series released from this (two more Space: 1999, three Thunderbirds, two Stingray, two Captain Scarlet, one Joe 90 and one UFO) were syndicated under the generic banner "Super Space Theater". The first of these films under the banner was Invasion: UFO, with the editing on videotape the compilations, had a softer and yet more colourful quality than the two earliest Space: 1999 compilations edited in London. I believe I read somewhere that the original Invasion: UFO tape even featured a trailer for the Thunderbirds compilation film Thunderbirds To The Rescue.
As the episodes weren't released on home video format for another two decades, it was a shame that when the film was re-released to new generations of fans that they couldn't watch episodes like The Man Who Came Back - which only had about a minute in the film! The movie was released by Precision Video in 1981 on VHS and Betamax. In 1985, Precision was acquired by Channel 5 Video (a joint venture between Dutch entertainment company PolyGram and Gerald Ronson's Heron International), nine of the ITC Gerry Anderson compilation movies were released on 1st August 1986 - including Invasion: UFO. The popularity of these videos took Channel 5 by surprise. As a result, Channel 5 began releasing complete television episodes of UFO and the SUPERMARIONATION shows. The following UFO VHS releases followed in 1987 in the ITC Recommended Broadcast Order with only another five videos, Volume Two (Exposed/Survival), Volume Three (Conflict/A Question Of Priorities), Volume Four (The Square Triangle/Ordeal), Volume Five (ESP/Close Up) and Volume 6 (Court Martial/Kill Straker!). They featured an ad of Nosey Parker from Thunderbirds promoting the other Anderson tapes.
Invasion: UFO, which I have watched mainly for nostalgia purposes, was re-released in the UK further with Polygram Video in 1993, and released on Blu Ray in 2016 by Network Distributing.
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UFO: The Vault
Non-FictionGerry Anderson's UFO was the first big budget British live-action television series of a secret government organisation named SHADO (Supreme Headqauters Alien Defence Organisation) combat a dying alien race who have come to Earth in order to survive...
